This minion's Battlecry functions much like the shaman Hero Power Totemic Call. However, unlike Totemic Call it has a chance to summon a Totem that you already have. For example, you can have 2 Healing Totem on the field at the same time if you play this after using Totemic Call.

Because Totemic Call cannot summon a Totem that is already on the player's board, if the Totemic causes the player to have one of each basic Totem, Totemic Call will then become unusable until one is removed from the battlefield.

This is a synergy card for a Totem deck, providing reasonable overall stats: no matter what Totem it summons you are getting a 1/1 or 0/2 of stats on the board along with the 3/2 Tuskarr itself. The effects of the Totems can be useful, and also work with cards like Thing from Below, Draenei Totemcarver, and Primal Fusion.

Since this minion's Battlecry does not obey Totemic Call's 'one of each Totem' rule, order of play can be important. Summoning the Totemic and then using the Hero Power will ensure the second Totem is different to the first; while using the Hero Power and then summoning the Totemic gives a chance of getting two of the same Totem. If the player is trying to get a specific Totem they don't already have on the board, it therefore makes sense to play the Totemic first, followed by using their Hero Power.

Tuskarr Totemic was originally capable of summoning any Totem, not just the ones generated by Totemic Call: specifically, Flametongue Totem, Totem Golem and Mana Tide Totem (as well as Vitality Totem in Wild format). This was changed in Patch 6.1.3.14830, both in order to reduce the overall strength of the aggro/midrange shaman decks popular at the time, and because the card RNG was deemed too "swingy" and not "the most fun type of randomness". Prior to the nerf the odds of winning after playing the card in such a deck were analysed over more than 50,000 games. If the Tuskarr Totemic summoned any of the basic totems, the chances to win were 45-47%, but if it summoned one of the other totems it produced a win rate of 55-69%. This huge influence on the outcome of the match based on the random effect of a single card was removed by the nerf, but the resulting poor odds even in strongly synergistic decks saw the card removed from competitive lists.

Commentary: We like that Tuskarr is contributing to totem focused decks, but currently the power level is centered around the possibility of summoning cards like Totem Golem or Mana Tide Totem. This isn’t the most fun type of randomness for a card that is low mana and sees this much play. We want this card to be an option for decks that take advantage of extra totems through cards like Thing from Below or Primal Fusion, but a weaker option for players looking for standalone high power level options on turn three. That said, we are adjusting the battlecry for Tuskarr Totemic to only summon basic totems.

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